Body & Form: 'Mythologies' (continued)

Once I found out I could use the photography studios, I took the opportunity to produce better quality images of my wire sculptures.

"If a woman dies in childbirth; either before or after the birth of the child, and before the forty days of uncleaness has expired, she is popularly supposed to become a langsuyar, a flying demon of the nature of the White Lady or banshee. To prevent this a quantity of glass beads are put in the mouth of the corpse, a hen's egg is put under each armpit, and needles are placed in the palms of the hands. It is believed that if this is done, the dead woman cannot become a langsuyar, as she cannot open her mouth to shriek (nglai) or wave her arms as wings, or open and shut her hands to assist her flight."

- 'Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Singapore (1878-1899)' by Sir William Maxwell

'Langsuir' (2010)

 



"The Vampire of the Phillipines is the Manananggal, a creature that looks like an older but very beautiful woman. Each night, she separates her torso in two at the waist - the word manananggal means 'self-remover' in Tagalog - leaves her lower body behind and flies off on huge, bat-like wings to seek her prey. Her favourite victims are pregnant women sleeping peacefully in their homes. Using her elongated proboscis-like tongue, she sucks out the heart of the foetus or the blood of unsuspecting mother-to-be.

When she flies away, the lower half of a Manananggal is left standing. Several folk remedies can prevent the two halves from reattaching, including sprinkling the lower torso with salt or smearing it with crushed garlic. If the Manananggal cannot rejoin her severed body by daybreak, she will die. Men who have been seduced by the Manananggal stand guard over the lower body to keep it safe for her return."

- 'The Mythical Creatures Bible' by Brenda Rosen



'Manananggal' (2010)

Shortly before taking these photos, I constructed yet another sculpture, this time based on a creature from Japanese folklore. This was called the Dorotabo (or Dorotabou).

 

"A hairless, golem-like mud man with a single eye in the middle of its forehead, it appears spontaneously in rice fields late at night, moaning, crying, and carrying on, generally scaring the hell out of anyone who happens to be in earshot. More often heard than seen, it is a quintessentially rural sort of monster. Although superficially simple, the Dorotabo is actually one of the most metaphoric of the yokai.

According to some tales, it represents the spirit of a hardworking old farmer who toiled to turn a humble plot of land into a productive rice field. In spite of years spent supporting his family and his hopes of providing an asset for his heirs, upon his death his dissolute son turned around and sold the beloved piece of land to pay for women, wine and song.

...Others describe the Dorotabo as the spirit of a farmer cheated out of his land, returned from the grave to haunt its new owners.

Still other theories hold that it is a pun based on the concept of indulging in one's personal vices."

- 'Yokai Attack! The Japanese Monster Survival Guide' by Hiroko Yoda and Matt Alt

 

'Dorotabo' (2010)





 

Additionally, I made a slight experimentation with another wire sculpture by incorporating mod-roc as part of the structure. Instead of adapting it from a mythological being however, this was based on a transi tomb called Le Transi de René de Chalon made by Ligier Richier.

 

Body & Form: 'Mythologies'

Taking a significant amount of influence from the sculptures of Alberto Giacometti, I set out to construct a few wire sculptures further emphasising the Modular Man. This time, I chose to distort the figures, as if they could still be living in the forms they have taken, however frail they appear. The extent of their bodily distortions were heavily based on the physical descriptions of various mythological creatures. Many creatures if myth possess unusually human qualities, even in form. If not, they are often at least representative of a certain aspect to human nature. Furthermore, the application of the 'utopian' entity was deliberate, tracing its point back to Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man and the mathematically perfect body. With this, I hope to explictly express the notion of perfection with regards to a concept like the human body as something purely arbitrary.

When I was starting this, I considered the possibility of setting up 'genders' between Modulars, since many mythical creatures were often specified as either strictly male or female in form. However, later on, I would take away my focus from this and allow myself to let the identity of the subject's figure become more apparent as it made progress.
Two of the mythical creatures I referenced for this project were from Malay folklore: the Langsuir and Manananggal.

I wanted to be very direct with my construction of the wire sculptures, so I bent the wires into shape with my own hands and rarely used tools, only for when cutting lengths. For reasons I cannot entirely determine, I find a simplistic joy in shaping the wire as I have done. The results were equally pleasing for me.

'Langsuir' (2010)

'Manananggal' (2010)

'Body & Form': 'Casket'

Considering the memento mori to be a reoccurring theme, I did a little research for a contextual reference:

"'Memento mori', as an artistic theme coincided with the Black Death (circa 1348). Depictions of death and other elements associated with mortality (skulls, hourglasses, snuffed candles, decayed flowers or fruits, etc.) appeared frequently in 'mainstream' art as well as funeral artwork.

A particular form of funeral art that continued until the 18th century was a type of tombstone art known as 'cadaver tombs' or 'transi tombs'. These often featured a two-levelled sculpture; the upper layer shows the deceased as they were when, with a skeletal figure lying below.

Other examples of transi tombs include 'Le Transi de Rene de Chalon' and 'Wakeman Cenotaph'."

With the transi tombs as a major influence, I came up with my own idea for a transi tomb. Similarly stylised after the likes of the Wakeman Cenotaph of Tewkesbury Abbey, I decided to depict my figure(s) in a way that makes them ambiguous from identification.

 

Design for 'Casket' (2010)

 

Originally, I considered this to be a woodwork piece, as I thought of using a door to carve the figures into hence the six panels in the design. However, since I couldn't find the appropriate material for the piece (as I needed a older type of door to carve into correctly), I decided to incorporate the design as a pressed metal peice. Furthermore, this has been produced at a significantly lower scale.

I recreated the outline for Casket with cut lengths of wire and these were to be arranged in as accurate a shape after the design to be then placed under a small sheet of metal and put under a fly-press. I used a fly press before when working on my final outcome for the first project on collections.

'Casket' (2010)

 

In hindsight, it was better for me to have settled for working on Casket, at least for now, at a smaller scale. This metal plate version then works as a maquette of sorts towards the production of the potential full-scale piece.